Minutes to Midnight II: The Queen Returns
by lostsword
Summary: Though they defeated Red, restored universal peace, established a spicy romance, and are just generally awesome, Zim and Gaz must deal with a new threat that will dwarf Red and all the Tallests that came before him. Tak and DIb will be along for the ride too, so DATR fans, feel free to join this thrilling ride that continues with The Queen Returns. ZAGR, DATR, GAMR. Q/A TILL DEC 7!
1. Chapter I: Prolouge

Chapter I: Prologue

**DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN INVADER ZIM OR IT'S CHARACTERS. I OWN MY OC's, MY STORY IDEAS, AND ANYTHING I CREATE.**

The sound of rubber screeching across asphalt could be heard as two cars flew into the semi-spacious parking lot that spanned the fore of Membrane City's legendary Hi Skool. The two cars in question—a pure white 1970's mustang and a black and green Trans Am—came to a sudden gravity defying halt as they parked side by side in two identical looking outlines of white chalk on the parking lot's surface.

With a near silent hiss, the two doors to the mustang slid _up_-not _out_ like the traditional car, but _up_-and Dib Membrane and Tak Miyuki exited the mustang. Dib was clad in his normal attire, which consisted of a white lab coat over black slacks; Tak wore ripped purple skinny jeans and a torn hoodie.

Beside them, the doors to Zim's battered Trans Am opened in the more traditional way and Zimmerman Tajiki, and Gazlene Membrane joined their "friends" as they headed towards the dreaded doors of Hi Skool. Zim was clad in plain blue skinny jeans and a torn red hoodie while Gaz was wearing a pair of black jeans and a black jacket.

Zim, formerly known to most of Earth's population, had decided, after being heckled by his companions throughout the summer, to change his fake name, Sohzu, back to Zim. _That_ had resulted in quite an interesting trip to the city hall; Zim still had nightmares.

It had been one year and two days since Zim had, literally, crashed into Gaz back in Membrane Park. After the hectic events that had followed—among which was the downfall of the Irken Empire and the death of Tallest Red—Zim had become Gaz's boyfriend and Tak-originally sent to kill Zim-became Dib's girlfriend.

Obviously this led to a few "minor" inconveniences between the foursome, however they had resolved most of the issues—mostly through violent fistfights between Dib, Zim, and Tak—and were now continuing on with their lives.

Dib and Tak, the former being seventeen, and the latter being, according to her "Earthling documents," almost seventeen, were enrolled as seniors. Zim, though he could enroll at the same level as Tak, and Dib, chose to enroll as a Junior with Gaz, who had skipped several grades already due to her abnormally high intelligence.

"Holy cow!" Someone gasped as Zim and Gaz joined Dib and Tak on their way up the stairs that led into Hi Skool. As they drew closer to the doors, the whispers from the assembled student body stumbling around outside increased.

"Did you see their hands?"

"Are they-"

"Who'd have thought,"

Zim smirked slightly as he held one of the double doors open for Gaz while Dib held one open for Tak. The two females—who really got along decently well—strode past their lovers and entered the facility that habitually, and casually, used the words torture and learning interchangeably. They made it less than two feet before an "incident" occurred.

Over the summer, Zim and Dib became painfully aware that their respective girlfriends were extremely pleasing to the eyes. Gaz and Tak were both young, fit, and beautiful, thus boys of all ages sought their attention. The only problem that they had with this was that they did not, under any circumstance, like to _share_.

"Incidents" occurred regularly and generally ended with more than a few muscular, good looking males ending up somewhere far away, wondering how they got there and why their brain hurt so much. This time however, Zim couldn't really mind wipe anyone they beat up while on Skool grounds.

"Sup Tak?" Brent asked as he stopped in the middle of the hallway, his bulky frame effectively blocking her route forward while the crowd of students entering school blocked her retreat. "You got any plans tonight?" He asked casually while winking and flexing.

_Males_, Tak thought with a mental groan before she shook her head. "I don't want to go out with you," She said simply and tried to walk around the star quarterback. Said star quarterback seemed to have the typical case of bad hearing that generally befell men when they were told no by the more feminine gender.

"Excuse me?" Brent asked, incredulous. He was Brent Tyle, star of the school football team and president of the "stud club", how could _any_ female say no to him? Just LOOK at his face? Look!

"She said no," Dib said, his tone terse and his eyes cold as he walked up to stand beside his girlfriend. The blue haired Irken female glared at Dib, though it was more of a "I can handle this" glare than a "I hate your guts" glare.

"Watch it shrimpy," Brent growled as he stared, ironically, up at Dib. The mega genius had grown over the summer and was surprisingly tall.

"Or what?" Dib said, his eyes narrowing. The first thing Tak had done once they had officially started dating was get him in shape. And she had used the most _interesting_ of methods to motivate him too. The end result of all of the work outs, death runs, and sparring was that Dib was no longer the weak little geek most people remembered him as. In fact, with the additional Irken hand-to-hand she had taught him, Dib could probably take anyone on campus in a fight with the exception of Zim, Tak, and of course Gaz.

"Oh, I'm going to _enjoy_ this!" Brent said furiously as he cocked his fist back and-in a rather stereotypical display of brute strength-tried to punch Dib square in the mouth. Dib smoothly ducked and easily brought one of his expensive black oxford dress shoes squarely into the center of Brent's stomach. The jock's eyes bulged and he heaved forward. Dib then delivered a simply punch to Brent's face and watched as the superstar fell backwards onto his back, out cold.

"He was mine!" Tak roared and started swatting at Dib in anger and frustration. While the rest of the student body hastily backed off of the couple, even more so then they had originally, Zim and Gaz watched in amusement.

"What's going on here!?" A teacher demanded as he walked down the hall and found two students fighting and a third laying on the floor. "Get off the floor! You'll ruin the waxing!" He complained and kicked Brent with his pointed shoe.

"Oh dear..." the teacher complained as he called for a pair of hall monitors to help him drag the stocky football player out of the hallway. Had to protect the newly waxed floors and all.

"You understand what just happened?" Zim asked as he turned his attention back to Dib and Tak, who predictably were just whispering to each other now instead of arguing.

"Nope," Gaz said and took Zim's hand for the second time that day and led him towards their home room. The whispers went from whispers to whisper-shouts before they had even gotten out of sight.

* * *

"And that class," Mr. Stevens said as he lectured his barely conscious class, "is how you take the 'x' and set it equal to pie over 'y' to the ninety seventh power." Groans sounded from the class as the students, all of them at various stages of mental death due to the hours and hours of learning they had crammed into their brains; most of which were still set in "summer" mode.

All except one of course, "learning-unit?" Zim asked as he glanced up from the nest of white paper that was painted heavily in lead and splattered with a heavy dousing of inky calculations. "Wouldn't the decimal carry over _four_ places instead of _three_?" Zim asked as Mr. Steven's friendly, if slightly forced, expression dropped immediately. "And wouldn't it be 'y' _over_ pie to the _ninety eighth_ power?"

"As I was saying cla-" Mr. Stevens started to say, only to be interrupted yet again.

"Teacher?" Zim asked again. "Would it not be-"

"AS I WAS SAYING CLASS," Mr. Stevens continued, his volume and his tone indicating he did not wish to be interrupted. He coughed once before resuming his lecture. "If you carry-"

"Sir?" A young boy, most likely a freshman, asked as he poked his head into the classroom.

"WHAT!?"

"I-I...Mrs. Bitters needs you sir..." The boy said, startled, as he slowly edged out of the room while dark, dreadful music began to play out of seemingly nowhere. Mr. Steven's eyes' widened in horror as he turned to his class, his expression one of extreme shock.

"Students, if I don't return, I just want you all to know that if you carry the-" Mr. Stevens began to say, his voice frantic as the music grew louder, only for Zim to raise his hand mid-lecture yet again.

"Wou-"

"NOT NOW SOH...er, ZIM!" Mr. Stevens barked, only for the music to suddenly stop and the doorknob to rattle demonically. "Oh no," He muttered as the door flew open, revealing a dark, mysterious figure within a thick fog on the other side of the doorway. "NO!" Mr. Stevens shouted in terror and ran towards the window, fully intent on busting out of the second story classroom that was bordered below by sharp, thorny rose bushes.

As he jumped, shadowy tendrils shout of from the thick fog and wrapped themselves around the mathematics teacher a mere inch before he hit the glass. "NOOO!" Mr. Steven's howled as he was dragged against his will out into the hall as the door slammed-literally slammed-shut.

"Why is the first day of school always the weirdest?" Gaz muttered as she tried to beat level 209 on her Game Slave IV, which Zim had given to her as a present. The act of giving her a Game Slave alone would have indebted Gaz to Zim for all eternity, giving it to her several weeks before it was released to the public would have left her in debt to him for eternity and then some.

But Gaz was above things like life debts. At least, she was when _she_ owed them to someone, it was an _entirely_ different story when someone else owed _her_ a life debt.

* * *

Zim eyed the white car in the driveway with a calculating expression as he parked behind it. "They must have skipped, there is no way they could have gotten here so quick," He commented as the car turned off and he and Gaz exited the Trans Am. The idea of walking in on Tak and Dib while they were _exploring_ was not high on Zim's list of things to do that day. Irk, he hoped they were decent when they opened the front door.

"Leave it to Tak to convince Dib to skip class," Gaz said, smirking slightly at the thought of her flawlessly straight A brother—who absolutely hated missing a minute of school—ditching class to be with his alien girlfriend. Zim merely grunted an agreement as they ascended the steps to Tak's mansion.

The massive white building set almost perfectly in the center of a massive square of perfectly cut grass. A large pool and a large helicopter pad were the only significant landmarks decorating the field around the mansion. Bordering the Miyuki estate was a large—and privately owned—forest that spread out in all directions before it stopped abruptly at a sleek, electrified metal fence that surrounded said forest.

"Tak?" Zim called out as he opened the giant mahogany door that led into the Miyuki residence. "Dib?" He called as Gaz walked past him. The wooden pegs neatly arranged along the foyer's left wall were adorned with Dib's coat and Tak's hoodie. "Great..." Zim complained quietly as he stared down the hallway before him and the countless doors that led to a nearly endless selection of rooms—many of which were bedrooms.

"They'll pop up later," Gaz said with a roll of her brown eyes as she turned to the left and entered the massive kitchen that Tak owned. The shelves went up at least twenty feet and the appliances were all state of the art; there was even an automated machine that would gather items off the higher shelves on a simple voice command.

"Hopefully they'll be modest," Zim muttered as Gaz made a beeline towards the Bloaties Maker. The only reason, as far as Zim could tell, that Gaz ever came to Tak's house was because it's kitchen came with a Bloaties Maker. The machine possessed over a hundred pizza combinations, the option of placing liquid cheese inside the crust, and the ability to make Super Bloaties, which were massive pizzas compared to the smaller ones that were were normally served at the Bloaties restaurant.

Gaz casually turned the machine on and set the pizza dial to Super Cheesy Death. The machine shook, then rumbled, and finally boomed as a giant cheesy pizza slid out of it's interior. Gaz quickly yanked it towards her mouth and began to devour the deadly concoction of cheese, wheat, and tomato sauce. Zim, himself hungry due to his inability to eat the school's health food, headed over to the machine to make one for himself.

* * *

The male Earthling and Irken female were buried deep in the large white building. They were down in the library, however that was as much as the observer could tell—the identificater wasn't _that_ advanced. The female Earthling and male Irken were closer to the fore of the house and were eating what appeared to be large, round, oiled up disks of wheat covered in some odd substance. And they were eating a surprisingly large number of the disks too.

"She's maintained her position on this continent," someone said softly. "The fool, doesn't she understand the basic rules of ¥ƦƧŵ's Evasive Tactics?"

"She doesn't realize she's being watched," another figure explained calmly. "And you should be happy that she doesn't," the figure added sharply. "If she _did_, we'd have been searching the galaxy for _ages_."

"Let's just take 'em now!" A third figure said arrogantly. "Wouldn't be that hard."

"_She_ said not to harm the girl," the second figure said firmly. "Do you want to be _Quisaded_?" It challenged.

The third figure slumped noticeably and shook it's head. "No..."

"Good," The second form said, content that everyone understood one another. "Contact her," it commanded the first figure. Said figure was noticeably shocked, however, it nodded and hit a button on it's wrist plate. Immediately, a hologram appeared and the three figures bowed very, very low.

"You highness," the second figure said in a soft, but extremely respective—perhaps even awed—tone. "We have found her for sure this time."

"You'd have better," a soft, silky tone said dangerously. "No more mix ups, confusions, or mistakes. I want her here safe and _unharmed_," the voice commanded, it's tone undefiable, it's order unquestionable. "If _anything_ happens to her, I will have _all_ of you _Quisaded_."

"We will be most careful, your majesty," the second figure said confidently. Without a word of acknowledgment or encouragement, the voice's owner and it's image disappeared as the hologram turn off; the connection had been cut.

"Well, what are you staring at?! Get to work!" the second figure barked and the other two figures quickly began to pack up their equipment. They had plans to make...

* * *

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	2. Chapter II: Bullies Part 1

**A/N: Sorry for the short chapter, but with finals coming up, I'm barely find the time to sleep, let alone write fanfiction. I'll give you guys a longer chapter next week!**

Chapter II: Bullies part 1

"Iggins," Gaz said calmly as she stared at the boy before her. The shorter, crazier moron that had tried to woo her only a few years prior was standing before her—simultaneously blocking the entrance to the school as well—looking entirely too smug for Gaz's liking. The purple haired hellion's expression was calm and her tone was plain, however, her eyes breathed a fury that rivaled a thousand suns orbiting a gigantic supernova. In other words, it was _not_ the kind of look you wanted to see directed at you.

"Gazzie," Iggins said pleasantly as he tried to ignore the she-demon's murderous stare. The only reason he wasn't in the hospital was because of a simple piece of flimsy white paper that was held within a barely concealed death grip. "Life's treating you well?" He asked.

"Oh, it's just been _fantastic_ since you left," Gaz said with an interesting mixture of menace and fake-kindness. Iggins' reaction was immediate; the 'I-just-saw-my-dog-run-over-six-times' look of utter pain and hurt would be a memory that Gaz would treasure till her dying day. Iggins noticed her glee and quickly covered it up with an arrogant snort.

"I wish I could say the same, but fantastic doesn't even come close to accurately describing how _I've_ felt since _I _dumped _you_," Iggins said, smirking, as he crossed his arms. The restraining order was still sticking out enough that Gaz could still see the object clearly. Oh how she hated that flimsy piece of paper—or more specifically the wording of the contract.

_If Gazlene Membrane harms Iggins Katchukablorg in any way, she will be fined up to ten thousand dollars and will be banned for life from any establishment owned by Bloaties Inc._

Oh how she hated life right now. And speaking of hating life, _where_ was Zim? He was supposed to be here—apparently he hadn't been able to take her to school today because Zim was working on "the greatest invention ever"—over an hour ago.

"Well Iggins," Gaz said, starting to growl, "I don't know how much damage I did to that messed up brain of yours when I was bouncing it into the concrete," she fought of a smile as she noticed a very startled wince, she had to keep up appearances after all. "But I was _never_, for a _single moment_, your _girlfriend_," she glared at him, allowing a dangerous scowl to take over her features. "So _back off_," She warned, hoping he would just let her into the school and be done with it. She _really_ hated the fact that his dad was one of the upper managers for Bloaties. And the fact that Iggins just _had_ to use that to bug her.

"Not so fast," Iggins said as Gaz glared even harder; maybe if she looked angry enough she could actually burn a hole in his head. "My contract states you cannot come within fifty yards of me," Iggins said smugly as he thrusted an arm forward, placing the paper once more in her face. "_Sooo_," Iggins drawled, "_You_ can _back off_," the smirk he was projecting would have fit better on an aliens' face. Though to be fair, with the baby fat and green hair, Iggins kind of resembled a freaky alien.

"It doesn't say that anywhere on there," Gaz said with steel in her tone. The paper only said she couldn't hurt him, though she was _seriously_ considering the pros and cons of the results of her harming the boy standing before her. The idea of Bloaties being gone from her life wasn't pretty. It wasn't even possible to think about.

"Perhaps," Iggins agreed as he pulled the paper away, "But _you_ can't read it and _I_ can, and _I_ said it says you can't get near me."

"It says I can't _harm_ you," Gaz said and her glaring features suddenly twisted into a sadistic smile. "But if I kill you, you _won't_ be harmed, you'll just be _dead_," Gaz said, her voice full of menace as she stalked forward towards Iggins.

"G-Gaz!" Iggins said, his voice shaking as he realized she was, no pun intended, deadly serious. "L-let's not d-do anything rash!" his voice grew louder and higher in pitch as Gaz approached his shaking form. "I have a restraining order!" he cried as he placed the paper before him like a a priest might place a cross before him to ward off an unearthly creature from the pits of Hell. It didn't do him much good.

* * *

"What in the world?" Zim wondered aloud as he pushed past a ring of students standing just behind the entry stairs that led up into the school. Zim, ignoring their horrified stares, looked down to see a bloodied piece of paper. Looking back up, he saw that Gaz was the center of attention and that she was standing over a lumpy object that was oozing some sort of liquid; more strips of paper sprinkled in red were scattered everywhere. "Gaz?" Zim asked as he approached his girlfriend and saw that the 'lumpy object' was actually a boy. A boy that was covered in long precise cuts and blackening bruises. Absentmindedly, Zim heard someone retching up their breakfast behind him.

"Yeah Zim?" Gaz said as her eyes lightened up at the sight of the Irken invader while her hand let go of a fistful of hair that had apparently been ripped off the boy's head. Said boy whimpered violently as he seemed to come back into a semi-conscious state, only to quickly pass back out.

"What did I miss?

* * *

**I will probably update part two later this weekend, but I wanted to get something out for you guys tonight. Enjoy!**


	3. Chapter III: The Dance

**A/N: First off, I am sorry for the time it's taking me to update, I expect things to speed up once I finally get into things now that I have three weeks to do whatever I want. **

**That being said, do you guys want a Christmas special? Completely unassociated with the fic? I figured it would be funny to watch Zim experience Christmas for the first time, but just let me know yay or nay in a review!**

* * *

Chapter III: The Dance

Kissing. She hated it. There wasn't much in Gaz's life that she liked to do, much less anything she loved. There _was_ a _lot_ of things she _hated_ however. She hated her brother and his meddling nature. She hated her father and his lack of attention for a desperately needy child. She hated humanity in general and their inability to rise above themselves and their vices.

What she _did_ love was pizza and her gameslave—the only things that had _always_ been there for her, the only things that had never left. No matter how much she abused them, used them, or ignored them, they were always there.

This left Zim in a weird light to Gaz. There had always been two categories for her life: that which she loved and that which she hated. Zim, however, fell into neither category. She didn't hate him, but she didn't love him either...right? She got angry with him, but she didn't mind him. She liked to talk with him, she ignored her gameslave and her pizza for him, but he didn't own her. In a certain regard, she didn't own him either.

All of this meant little as she was slammed rather forcefully against one of the walls in her "room" at Zim's house while using the weird metallic desk as a support. Zim was growling louder than normal as he kissed her feverishly, his mouth devouring her lips like a drunk drank alcohol.

"Zim," Gaz panted softly as he pushed against her, trying to get closer to her. His long snake like tongue was dominating her own as they kissed and Gaz honestly didn't care that she wasn't in control for once. The feeling she was experiencing at the moment was _completely_ worth it.

"Love-pig," Zim said softly in return, using his Irken made nick name for her as he felt her shove against him, causing them both to be knocked to the floor. Zim only used the term when they were alone, he rarely used it in public. To Gaz, despite the weirdness of the term, it was a turn on.

"We. Could. Just. Stay. Here." Gaz said in between kisses. What she was referring to was the school homecoming dance, which had already started. The two were dressed for the dance—Gaz in an expensive, but also ghoulish, dress and Zim in a stunning black and red combo suit with a green tie—but neither were very interested in going and were still holed up inside Zim's house.

Tak was really the only one that wanted to go, she had dragged Dib along and following that logic he had dragged them along. Or he had tried to; they still hadn't left yet. And yet was becoming an increasingly subjective term.

"Sounds. Good." Zim answered as he started to remove the jacket from his three piece suit. Gaz likewise began to remove the sweater that she had been forced to wear over her dress by Dib—he claimed it was too cold out for her to be walking around in just a dress. Someone he had failed to realize that Gaz didn't _get_ cold, she _inflicted_ it.

Before either of the two hormone crazed juniors could continue, Gaz's phone went off for the tenth time in the last five minutes. Sighing as she removed herself from Zim—barely—Gaz picked up her cell phone from the floor and flipped it open. "Hello?" she asked, knowing full well who was calling. There were four people in existence that had ever _continued_ to bother Gaz after she had made it clear she was not in the mood to talk to them. One of those people was in the room with her, another was probably drunk, one was dead, and the last one was calling her. _And for his sake, he better be the second or third..._

"Gaz!" Dib's voice cried out so loud that Zim heard him even though the phone wasn't on speaker. "Save me!" he shouted before the sound of loud music drowned him out. The two teenagers—well teenager, Zim wasn't really a teenager by Earth standards—rolled their eyes and continued with their own 'party'.

* * *

"Gaz!" Dib cried fearfully as someone ran into him, causing him to drop his cell phone onto the floor, where it was quickly smashed by the drunk dancers grinding or swaying around him.

Tak was already assaulting his neck with spicy kisses and seductive promises. The two were trapped in the middle of a large crowd of upperclassman going wild on the makeshift dance floor set up in the high school's gym. Glow lights, steamers, and mini disco balls were hanging everywhere as people danced in the center of the room.

Those that weren't dancing either got drinks of questionable origin from tables surrounding said dance floor or participated in equally questionable activities in the darker corners of the gym. The few teachers that had shown up were all nursing headaches and were looking longingly at the surprisingly clear punchbowls instead of the students they were supposed to be watching. In other words, it was like prom but in August.

"_Forget_ about your little _sister_ for once _Dib_," Tak shouted in his ear as the music around them pounded a beat so strong that he could feel it in the marrow of his bones. "Dance with _me_!" she said happily while grinding against him. She had already indulged in the student smuggled alcohol than she should have and now it was complicating Dib's night as his girlfriend tried to do unmentionable things to him. Normally he wouldn't object, but Dib wasn't an exhibitionist and he _definitively_ wasn't going to start right now.

"Stop fighting me!" Tak said, her accent pitching higher on the "g" as she planted a sloppy kiss on Dib's head. "Your mouth feels funny!" she shouted happily as Dib finally managed to fight his way out of the dance floor while simultaneously dragging Tak with him.

"I WANA dance!" Tak declared as Dib led her towards a secluded table nearby while the raven haired teen scanned for an exit. How someone like Tak—who was hard as nails and was just as dangerous—could end up drunk so easily while someone like Zim—who was nothing but a pathetic excuse for an alien life form—could habitually drink under the table would forever stump Dib.

He had been so sure Irkens, being such lightweight creatures, would easily become intoxicated. However, one, just _one_, drinking game with the two resident Irkens had proven that the green race was completely unpredictable when it came to Earth's substances. Tak had lost after her second drink, Zim had cleaned them _all_ out. Even Gaz hadn't been able to out drink the boastful Irken.

"Dib I wana daaance!" Tak wailed, bringing the boy genius back to the present and at the same time reminding him why he had been trying to find the exit. He needed to get Tak out of here...

"Quite Tak, you don't want to dance, you want to go to sleep," Dib told her sternly as he continued his search for the exit. While he wasn't a hardcore drinker like Tak, he wasn't so far up the moral ladder that he wouldn't drink underage. Whether the three glasses of "punch" he had ingested so far was the contributing factor to his inability to find the exit was yet to be seen, but Dib had a sneaky feeling that it was.

"Sleep?" Tak said out loud as she reached blindly for something that Dib couldn't see. "Yeah!" she shouted, exited once again. "Sleep with you!" was it Dib or was her voice slurring? Crap.

"Quite Tak, calm down!" Dib commanded to no avail as his girlfriend wiggled free and tackled him into a table. The wooden table would have hurt a lot more if there hadn't been someone to cushion their fall.

"Dib!?" Tina Faey shouted in surprise as she stared up at Dib, who was wedged firmly between her and Tak. "What are you doooing he-here?" she asked, her own slurred speech confirming to Dib that the bimbo was just as wasted—if not more so—as Tak.

"Nothing! Just leaving!" Dib said as he stood up, surprised that she was even talking to him as he helped Tak up before helping Tina up.

"Don't leave!" Tina said and latched onto his free arm. "Great time!"

"Yeah!" Tak said as she spun around to face Dib while also linking arms with Tina. "Let's have an _awesome_ time Dibbie!" she shouted over the blaring audio system.

Dib paused, eyed the two beautiful, hungry looking females, both of whom would most likely never even remember the nights events, and weighed the options. Almost immediately he shook his head and yanked Tak away from Tina and after him towards the door. "By Tina! Nice to see you tonight!" he cried over his shoulder before reaching the double doors that led out of the gym and into the school.

"I've always wanted to do it in Bitter's office!" Tak said exitedly as she caught sight of the most infamous office now owned by the most infamous teacher—who was now most infamous principle—in Membrane City's Skool system.

_Why me_? Dib thought bitterly as a pair of feminine hands that he knew very well grabbed his white tie roughly.

"C'mere handsome!"

* * *

"Kids!" Professor Membrane shouted happily as he barged into his home, his arms spread out wide to receive his angels' embraces. Except they didn't come. They hadn't for years. And now—after he had finally come to realize the precious nature and rarity of those few, so very few, moments so long ago—they weren't even home anymore. Both of the professor's children had, completely out of the blue, gotten themselves partners in the relationship arena and now rarely were ever home. Gaz was always off with that foreign boy and Dib was always in the lab with that rich girl. His children had moved on and it pained the suddenly even more lonely professor.

"Kids?" Membrane called softly as he walked down the lone hallway that decorated his now empty home. The two were nowhere to be found, they weren't just locked up in some part of the house with their respective dating partners, they were completely out of the house. For some reason he was surprised, he should have known that failing to uphold his end of the "family night" deal would result in this, but he still felt slighted.

Sighing, he walked into the kitchen and found a pair of notes. One was a perfectly placed sticky note covered in Dib's sketchy scrawl.

_Dad, sorry we couldn't be here tonight for Family Night, we got dragged to Homecoming. Have a fun night off!_

_Dib_

The second was a piece of notebook paper that was covered in Gaz's perfect, but demonic, cursive.

**If you actually show up for once, I'm not here because I didn't feel like spending it with you**

It wasn't even signed by her, but the professor knew fully well who had written it. His greatest failure in life wasn't being unable to make a cure for cancer—he had done that, but had blown it up on accident—it wasn't being incapable of using every inch of his brain—he had _tried_, but he had decided it was far too dangerous to risk his current intelligence for the slim offhanded chance of gaining a bit higher intelligence—no, none of those were his greatest failure in life. His greatest failure was Gaz.

It was ironic, Membrane supposed, that his greatest failure was his greatest creation, his greatest achievement. He would brag about Dib to his supposed friends in the science communities, he would praise him when he spoke to his government employers, he even privately held him on a pedestal just a bit below his love of science. But Gaz..._Gaz_ he held on a pedestal above _all_ others.

Maybe it was the daddies little girl theory, or the youngest child syndrome. Any of those theories could possibly explain his love for his daughter. But deep down, Membrane knew it was because she was _perfect_. Gaz wasn't perfect in the Earth sense, she was perfect in the _scientific_ sense. She came from the greatest race ever, mixed with the most promising race ever. It was such a beauty of calculations and possibilities that the professor had spent his entire life observing Gaz from afar to see how his little experiment turned out.

Even calling her that made him feel cold. He viewed Dib as a son, an heir, but Gaz, Gaz he viewed as a test subject. For so long he had seen her as merely a number of possibilities and opportunities. He had always loved her, but only now, once he had lost _her_ love, did he see just how much more important she was to him in an emotional sense than in a scientific sense. And he had failed her.

He had been so focused on the data of his work, on providing for his children, that he had failed to give them the proper attention they required. Dib had taken to his father's work and thus coped but Gaz had refused—no that wasn't a strong enough word—she had _refused_ his work and secluded within herself. She had eventually drawn away from him until Family Night was the only time she ever talked to him. Now she didn't even bother with that...

What was the world coming to? What was he doing with his life? What was the point of it all?

The professor was pulled out of his musings rather abruptly as the sound of an all too familiar blaster charging up could be heard as something metallic was placed against the back of his head.

Three words were spoken. Three words were all that was needed. Those three words brought more fear into Professor Membrane's heart than anything ever had before.

"Where. Are. They."


	4. Chapter IV: Deja Vu

Chapter IV: Déjà Vu

_Vmmmph! Vmmmph!_

_ Vmmmph! Vmmmph!_

Gaz groaned as she swatted at her cell phone; it just _had_ to be sitting on the one edge of the night stand that she _couldn't reach_.

_Vmmmph! Vmmmph!_

Ugh.

"Love-pig?" Zim said groggily as he was roused from his slumber—he didn't require it because of his Pak, but he had come to enjoy it while in Gaz's company—by her groaning. "Is something wrong?"

"Phone..." Gaz grumbled from the depths of her pillows—having a cloning machine in one's house was a _major_ payoff sometimes—as she tried to grab her phone without removing her head from the warmth of the bed. "Shut _off_..."

Chuckling softly, Zim easily reached over her smaller form and deftly claimed the small purple phone from the nightstand. "Silly Gaz," he teased as she rendered him a unique hand gesture that he had learned to be a grave insult on the backwards world he now called home.

Flipping the phone open, Zim quickly skimmed the caller ID list to see who had called her—he did it more to annoy his mate than to see who was calling her at four in the morning. It was Dib.

Shrugging, Zim casually turned the phone off and placed it back on the nightstand with the same ease that he had used to collect it.

He told himself that the reason he had turned the phone off was that he had wanted to silence the infernal device; it had _nothing_ to do with him wanting to silence the equally infernal child calling his mate and disturbing their precious alone time...

"Who was it?" Gaz asked as she rolled over to face her boyfriend. She noticed his features darken before he promptly shut off the cell phone. There was only one person on Earth that could make Zim react like that.

"Dib?" She asked him as he slid back into the bed in Gaz's unofficial "official" room within Zim's home. The thick blankets seemed to surge around him as he molded himself into Gaz's body; the warmth from his body came almost immediately—she _loved_ the fact that Irkens were warm blooded.

Zim merely grunted as he wrapped his arms around Gaz once more and closed his eyes. Gaz, not one to argue and risk Zim removing himself from her—though he would never do such a thing; he liked her far too much—merely shrugged and curled into Zim's warmer body as sleep soon retook her.

* * *

"Master?"

Gaz's eyes popped open at the same time as Zim's did. The light brown pair of human eyes locked with the red lenses of the Irken and the two both stopped breathing briefly; though neither noticed it.

"Master?"

And moment gone.

"_What?!_" Zim demanded as he felt the connecting moment he had been experiencing disconnect and Gaz looked away; her heavenly face as dark red as his ruby eyes.

"The Dib-stink is outside with Invader Tak," the Computer explained as it dropped a display screen down. The screen fizzled briefly before showing Zim a live feed of Dib and Tak standing outside of his front door; Dib was hammering furiously.

Out of instinct, Zim checked the feed to make sure it was only broadcasting to Zim. Luckily it was only displaying the feed as a one way line; Zim sighed in relief. He would have hated to see what would have happened if Dib had seen the state that Zim and Gaz were currently in. Gaz would have probably killed Dib before he could even utter one foul word.

Huh...

"Master?"

"What?!" Zim demanded yet again as he was dragged from the mental image of Gaz ruthlessly beating Dib to a bloody pulp with her bare hands.

"What shall I do with the Dib-stink and Invader Tak?" The Computer asked in it's calm, computerized voice as it withdrew the display screen back up into the depths of the house's attic.

"Let them in," Gaz said wearily as she began to dig her way out of the plush covers that weighed more than twice her entire body mass. "_We_," Gaz said with a teasing smirk at Zim, "will meet them in the living room."

Zim glared at her.

* * *

"Where are they?" Tak complained out loud as she glared at the "transportation tube" inside of Zim's kitchen. The toilet had yet to open up and reveal either Zim or Gaz. Knowing what Dib had to tell his sister only made the waiting worse for Tak. Did the Gaz-stink not realize how _badly_ she was hurting her brother right now?

Dib, for his own part, remained quiet as he sat at the dinner table. His eyes were lifeless as he stared at the toilet; waiting—endlessly waiting it seemed—for his little sister. His world was crumbling by the second and he couldn't even try to save it until his blaster sister finished screwing her retched boyfriend and came upstairs!

The minutes ticked by and Tak saw no sign of movement; she was just about ready to give up on Zim when she saw the first signs of the tube activating. The white ceramic toilet shook barely as the faintest sounds of a lift could be heard.

A few more minutes passed and the toilet stopped it's faint shaking and slid back as Zim and Gaz rose up from the floor.

Zim eyed them as if their very presence was extremely annoying; his eyes were narrowed and his lips were drawn in a thin line as he looked from Dib to Tak, then back to Tak. His gaze asked the unspoken question that Gaz vocalized upon seeing her brother.

"What are you doing here Dib?" Gaz asked expressionlessly as she folded her arms across her chest. She gave a brief nod to Tak—they got along most of the time now; unlike _some_ people...

"Gaz..." Dib began, his voice shaky as he refused to look at his sister. "D...da..." he tried to say before closing his eyes and leaning into his hands as he shook violently. Gaz—for the first time in her life—was slightly alarmed.

"Dib?" Gaz asked as one of her eyebrows rose up in confusion. Dib crying? What had brought this on? If he was here because of her and Zim—which was unlikely considering he already knew about their occasional sleepovers—than he would have been beating—or at least _attempting_ to beat—the tar out of Zim. Instead he was crying.

Why?

What Tak said next caused Gaz to be very grateful towards Zim and his protective arms. They were the only thing that kept her standing.

"Your father's dead Gaz," Tak said solemnly as she saw a variety of emotions register across Gaz's features. Shock, horror, disbelief, pain, and disbelief again. The emotions flashed by in a mere instant, but Tak's eyes caught it all. Gaz didn't believe her.

"The remains of your estate were still burning when we returned to this morning," Tak continued as Dib continued to shake next to her. Her hand found his knee and she gave a comforting squeeze.

"The police think your father's lab's octane reserves ignited during an experiment...the entire house was covered in flames," Tak said; her voice growing quieter as she spoke.

"No one survived..."

* * *

The fires were just being put out by the time they arrived; what wasn't burning was a smoking lump of charcoal. Gaz surveyed the rubble before her—the only home she had ever known—and she was mentally surprised that she felt nothing at the sight.

No anger, no remorse, no pity, no shock. She was perfectly okay with her home being burnt to the ground.

_Am I really a monster?_ Gaz wondered briefly as she walked beside Zim past the sidewalk and onto the ruined grass lawn. Firefighters and medical personnel were running all over the area as they put out the remaining fires and tended to the wounded; apparently the fireball the house had made had set several nearby houses on fire and possibly even killed a few people.

"Great Irk," Zim muttered as he looked at the devastation before him. He had fantasied about burning down Gaz's home a dozen times while they had been fighting, but once he had realized his feelings for her, he had never even thought of burning down a blade of grass on her property.

"It was just a house," Gaz said calmly as she surveyed the area in an analyzing manner as she tried to determine if it _really_ had been an accident. She saw nothing.

"Are you the doctor's children?" A man in a fireman's uniform asked as he approached the foursome of teenagers.

"Yes sir," Dib said as he fought back tears; unlike Gaz, _he_ had been effected by the destruction of his family home. Wet tears still stained his face while Tak held his hand tightly as she stood next to him offering her support.

"Your father's remains are being transported for an autopsy, we will have the results in a few days," he informed them as Dib nodded weakly. "Is there somewhere you can stay that we can reach you?" He asked.

Dib nodded and gave him Tak's address and information before turning to ask Gaz if she planned to stay with Zim. As much as he hated the idea of his little sister sharing the same roof as Zim, he knew it was going to happen anyways; he might as well ask her now instead of waiting for her to sneak out later.

To his surprise, she—along with Zim—was gone.

"Where did she-" Dib started to say, only for Tak to interrupt him.

"She needs some alone time, we'll just call them if anything come sup," Tak said softly as she gestured in the general direction of the city park.

Dib nodded and thanked the fire chief before he headed over to stare at the remains of his home while his mind raced. Tak, understanding, simply walked up beside him and gave his hand a squeeze.

* * *

"I can't believe he's gone," Gaz said softly as she sat on Zim's lap. The two were sitting on a branch high up in the trees of the city park. Her hands were gently tracing circles on Zim's fingers while the Irken carefully ballanced the two of them by locking onto the tree limb with one arm and holding onto Gaz's abdomen with the other.

"He was just...there...but...not there..." Gaz added as she stared at Zim's hands. She wasn't a very emotional person, but she had started thinking about her father and the few moments she had actually been able to spend with him.

The computer lessons he had given her when she was still in elementary school; the time they had spent fixing up his car, even the failed golfing expedition in Sweden had popped up in her mind as she dragged Zim away from the smoking remains of her home and towards the forest that she had felt so drawn to for some reason.

"I didn't really care for him...but he was still special..." Gaz continued while Zim merely remained quiet and gave her a few comforting hugs with the one arm he had wrapped around her. One of the side effects of his defective "birth" was that he had actually been completely awake when he was born.

As such, he had seen the mechanical arm that had tended to him for the first few seconds of his life; he had become emotionally distraught over being separated from the arm and thus could sympathize with Gaz on missing her parent.

Of course, he hadn't spent as much time with his "parent" as she had, and she had obviously loved him—even if she wouldn't admit it—but Zim still understood the great pain that came with being separated from a beloved caretaker.

"Why'd he have to leave?" Gaz asked in such a quiet voice that Zim nearly missed the words as Gaz spoke them. He pondered the question for a few minutes before answering.

"Because it was his time," he said simply as he brought Gaz closer. "Because life isn't fair," he added with just a slight hint of bitterness. He hadn't really cared at all about the doctor, but he _did_ care about Gaz and the doctor's death had hurt Gaz. Therefore he was in turn hurt by the doctor's death.

Gaz nodded glumly as she closed her eyes briefly to allow the memories to play before her mind. Trips to Bloaties, the store, a few playgrounds, even a pool once; the memories all played before her and she felt both saddened and relieved slightly as she re-experienced all of the special moments with her father.

Once she was content and ready to head home—well, to Zim's home anyways—Gaz opened her eyes. What she saw wasn't what she had been expecting.

"Zim?" She asked as she looked at the sky.

Behind her, Zim, who had been dozing, glanced down at her. "Yes love-pig?" He asked.

"Please tell me those are friends of yours," she said as she pointed towards the sky. Zim followed her gaze and felt his mouth drop open.

"Oh Irk..."

* * *

**Who had a wonderful Christmas? I hope everybody enjoyed themselves, because the break is over and it is time to return to Fanfiction!**

** Have fun with the cliff hanger and let me know what you think in a review!**


	5. Chapter V: Invasion

Chapter V: Invasion

"Oh Irk..."

Gaz couldn't help but agree with her boyfriend as she stared up at the odd ships hovering over Membrane City. The vessels weren't the stereotypical disks that _every_ alien flick made them out to be, however, they were not like the organic vessels that Gaz had come to know either.

These vessels were dark, and she wasn't only thinking of the color of the ship's metallic shells when she thought that. There seemed to be a dark aura emitting from the vessels, an evil presence perhaps.

"Are those...doors?" Zim wondered aloud as he peered up at the creepy star ships floating above his head.

He realized with a start that they _were_ doors. Blast doors.

_Oh crap..._

As soon as the hanger bay doors had fully opened, an assortment of every class of ship Zim had ever seen came raining down upon the city. Drop ships, attack ships, bombers, support transports, communication drones, scouting probes. Anything and everything was pouring out of the vessels and flying towards Membrane City.

"Zim..." Gaz started to say, only for an explosion to interrupt her as the fighters and bombers began to unload their payloads across the city. Laser fire filled the sky as various buildings began to explode or catch fire while the bows of the larger vessels began to glow.

"Brace yourself love-pig!" Zim roared before the first star ship fired its main cannon. The laser blast roared down towards the center of the city and leveled an area several blocks in diameter. Immediately the earth shook around them and the massive wave of air from the explosion blasted the young couple clear out of their tree and onto the hard ground below.

While they were recovering their wits, the other ships began to fire salvos as well and more of Membrane City began to burn.

"We have to find my brother and Tak!" Gaz snapped and Zim nodded before they stood up from the ground.

"Agreed," Zim said before they began to move towards the general direction of the former Membrane household, or at least where the ruins of it was.

The two remained quiet as they retraced their steps to Dib and Tak. They backtracked through the lengthy, and admittedly random, course that Gaz had first taken when she had first been running off for a good ten minutes before Gaz finally spoke up.

"Zim, do you have any idea who those guys are?" Gaz asked as they picked up their pace—the after effects from the blast had worn off by now.

"No," Zim said, but Gaz could tell he was lying. He knew something then, but why lie to her?

Before Gaz could interrogate Zim on his dishonesty, a bright orange laser blast shot out from the foliage ahead of them and missed Zim's forehead by mere centimeters.

"Watch out!" Zim cried before he tackled Gaz to the ground as a burst of laser fire followed the initial single shot. While they were still on the ground, a trio of creatures wearing body armor burst out of the treeline and into the semi-spacious clearing that Zim and Gaz had been running through.

The creatures stood slightly taller than the average human, however, they were hunched over so Zim could only assume they were actually much taller. They were all encased in a dark, bulky set of armor that covered every inch of them, so he could not discern what the creatures' skin color was. The helmet was shaped almost like an egg of sorts, with a light gray visor protecting as well as obscuring their face from view or damage. The armor's shapeless design prevented Zim from discovering much at all about the creature's physical form other than the obvious humanoid makeup.

The creatures screamed something in an unknown language and fired off more laser bursts at the Irken and the Human. Zim, however, grabbed Gaz and yanked them off towards cover behind a nearby tree.

"If you happen to have a blaster..." Gaz growled as she glared up at Zim from her spot pressed against the tree. Normally, she didn't mind Zim pressing her against some random surface somewhere, but right now, there were aliens shooting at them. Privately, she was beginning to suspect the invasion had something to do with her father's death. That meant those alien freakbags were partially responsible for separating her from her father forever. That meant they had to pay. That meant she had to _doom_ them.

"Would you really believe the great Zim would never have an assortment of useful milit-" Zim was cut off as a laser blast blew through the wood of the tree and, once again, missed his face by mere centimeters. "One moment," Zim said quickly before mentally ordering his Pak to quickly cycle through the available weapons contained within it.

Once the Pak had found a suitable weapon for Gaz, it ejected it from a side slot within the outer shell casing and the blaster landed perfectly in Gaz's waiting hand. A quick moment later and it ejected another weapon for Zim as well.

"Just like Vampire Piggy Combatants?" Gaz asked teasingly as they waited one more moment, allowing their doomed foes to creep just _that_ much closer.

"No," Zim said with a smirk at his love-pig, "these creatures don't have a boss to defend them."

"Me likee," Gaz said before spinning around from the cover of the tree and firing off quick, precise shots from her blaster. The bright red bolts zoomed across what little open space remained between her and the alien creatures and each bolt hit home on the aliens body armor. Two of the creatures dropped immediately from head shots but one remained standing while clutching at a chest wound.

"Gaz!" Zim roared in fear as he too spun out from the cover of the tree. To his horror, he saw the sole remaining creature recover enough to raise its rifle at Gaz. Rather than charge forward and take the blast for Gaz like a moron, Zim quickly, but calmly, raised his own blaster and fired off a bolt of his own. The bolt hit the creature solidly in the chest and knocked it over onto its back. Zim had probably put too much energy into the shot, but for Gaz Zim was always willing to err on the side of overkill.

Once he had made sure that Gaz was safe, Zim advanced cautiously towards the downed alien and began to check for any signs of life. Once he was sure that the creature had passed on to the other side, and only then, did Zim return to Gaz.

"We really have to find my brother and Tak now," Gaz said softly as she eyed the smoking corpses with disgust. They hadn't even really put up a fight...

Zim opened his mouth to respond, however, he was once again interrupted as his cell phone went off. Pulling it out from his pocket, Zim saw that the caller was Dib. Above Dib's name was a single word: Urgent!

"Hello?"

"Zim, we're at your base," Dib said, his voice was equal amounts of terror and awe. "You had better get over here as fast as you can, the Computer found something you have to see."


End file.
